When Sony took a page from Microsoft’s book and started charging users for online multiplayer, many gamers who’d enjoyed free multiplayer services on the PlayStation Network grumbled and complained. Until then, the PlayStation Plus subscription was only necessary for those who wished to partake in the Instant Game Collection; the “free” games doled out to subscribers each month.
It seems there’s been less grumbling, and a lot more subscribing. Just a year and a half ago, PlayStation Plus had 10.9m paid subscribers. Sony has now revealed that there are over 20.8m people paying for PlayStation Plus. That’s according to a presentation by Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Andrew House at Sony’s investor day.
Sony has said that it has, in total, around 60 million active PlayStation users across its three platforms, which means around a third of them are paying for the Instant Game Collection and online multiplayer.
That’s a pretty large subscriber base, that earns Sony over a billion dollars a year. By comparison, Microsoft boats that it now has 46 million monthly active users – though it’s worth noting that Microsoft’s Xbox Live service has two tiers; a paid gold service and a free silver one.
At the same time, Sony confirmed it’s shot past the 40 million PlayStation 4’s sold, with the console still very much the best-selling system in the history of the PlayStation brand. Not bad, considering consoles are dead.
Last Updated: June 29, 2016
Ottokie
June 29, 2016 at 14:08
Do you wanna play online?
https://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/59770779.jpg
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
June 29, 2016 at 14:10
Wanna play Overwatch? Subscribe bitch
PS3 PS+ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>PS4 PS+
HvR
June 29, 2016 at 14:54
About the same number of people pay their SABC TV licenses every year, still doesn’t mean they really want to and get any value for their money.
AfricanTime
June 29, 2016 at 15:30
not really, not forced upon you, and well worth the money.
Darren Peach
June 29, 2016 at 16:03
In the grand scheme of things, Considering the population of the world, that is a relatively small amount of users. But, times the price of each console by 20 million + users. That’s a huge chunk of change.